The Full Monty: analysis of cultural and social themes

¶ … Monty the play is a lot like the film of the same name, just some of the details have been changed. In the play, the unemployed men are steelworkers who live in Buffalo, NY. They come up with a plan to help one of their friends who is down on his luck, by creating a show where they strip down to their g-strings for a mostly female audience. The show is funny, and the music is very good, and the entire play is quite entertaining. The playwright uses each character to show real life problems and issues, while using humor to balance the important issues each man has to deal with. One man is fighting to get custody of his son. Another is hiding his job-loss from his wife while he is trying to lose weight. These problems help the characters seem more real, and help the audience identify with them and their issues. The playwright wanted to create more than just a musical comedy, and he managed to do that with sensitivity and an understanding of modern issues that can face just about anyone. That was one of the things I really liked about the play - that it was funny, and kept the audience laughing, but it had a serious side too, and it made the audience aware that every situation has at least two sides.

David Yazbek wrote the music for the play, and Terrence McNally was the playwright. They managed to get a good balance between the music and the acting, and I have to admit I was a little apprehensive about this film being turned into a musical. I was afraid it might be too "sappy" or over the top. However, the music, which mostly sounds like pop, really is a nice touch and helps keep the action from getting too funny at times, or too serious. Some of the songs were quite memorable. I thought "Michael Jordan's Ball" was especially funny, and the way Yazbek wrote it, in a bouncy, very male quality, helped give it the feel of the court action in a big basketball game. "Big Black Man" was jazzy and fun, and kept you humming after it was over.

I thought most of the music was easy to listen to, but I would have liked a more modern or hip approach to some of the music. At least some of these guys seemed like guys who would listen to modern music, like hip-hop, and I would have liked to have seen more variety in the music, making it relate more to a younger, hipper audience. I did think the music helped make the characters more real, along with the storyline. It showed they were not stupid or "losers" because they were out of work, and showed they could be creative when they needed to be, and had ideas, ideals, and dreams, just like anyone else.